Oliver Rowland has defended his defensive driving at last weekend's Sanya E-Prix, stating that his actions on-track were "on the limit" although they were within the ABB FIA Formula E Championship's rule book.
After securing pole position at the sixth race of the season, Rowland piloted his Nissan e.dams car to second place to secure his maiden podium finish in the all-electric single seater series.
Rowland led the first half of the Sanya E-Prix, however, dropped to second with 21 minutes + 1 lap of racing remaining when reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne overtook the British rookie into Turn 11 to take the lead.
Under pressure from BMW i Andretti Motorsport's Antonio Felix da Costa, Rowland put up a robust defence to hold onto second place from the Portuguese racer, with the pair making contact in Turn 5 – an incident that was under investigation post-race although no further action was taken.
With the race being neutralised as a result of a late red flag following a crash for Alexander Sims in the second BMW, Rowland was able to close in on Vergne in the dying stages of the race, searching for a place out on track to overtake the Frenchman.
Given the events of the Hong Kong E-Prix and with Vergne also under investigation for breaching safety car protocol, Rowland was instructed to hold and maintain second place by his Nissan team in order to bank a podium finish – a result that left the driver with mixed feelings post-race when it emerged that Vergne would receive a reprimand as opposed to a time penalty:
"On one side I'm happy and on the other a little bit disappointed," said Rowland, leaving Sanya with mixed feelings. "I had a good opportunity there – JEV did a good job – he surprised me and I knew he was going to at some point.
"I'm of course very happy with the podium and it’s been a while. I lost it in Mexico and again I was leading in Hong Kong. It’s been a pretty tough three races with three DNFs, so it’s nice to score some points.
Discussing his defensive driving techniques when competing for position directly against Vergne and da Costa, Rowland described his approach as "on the limit," declaring that his aggression out on track allowed him to finish on the podium:
"I was struggling a lot and I knew that if I dropped back – when you start dropping back in Formula E races – everybody thinks that you’re slow and they will use their energy to overtake you," he continued.
"I knew I couldn’t afford to drop too far back and I was on the limit, within the rules but on the limit. I had to be aggressive."
Rowland's second place finish in Sanya has moved the 26-year-old into 12th place in the Drivers' Championship with 27 points while Vergne's win propelled him from 11th in the points standings to third, with da Costa currently leading.
With Rowland's Nissan e.dams team-mate also finishing inside the top 10, finishing in eighth place as a result of a 10-second time penalty post-race for causing a collision with Robin Frijns and Lucas di Grassi, the Japanese manufacturer has also moved forward in the Teams' Standings, accumulating 46 points.
